Documents exist, by necessity, in both physical and electronic form. During the lifecycle of a single document, in some workflows, the document may at times exist in its electronic form, and at other times in its physical form. For example, during the course of progression through a workflow, an electronic document file may be printed and a printed document may be scanned. Over the course of the workflow, these processes may be performed several times. Alternatively or in addition, a physical document may progress along several steps in a workflow during its lifecycle.
Various techniques have been developed for coding information to be accessed as the document progresses through the workflow. For example, a barcode may be affixed at each point that contains information related to the document, such as identifying information, instructions related to the document, and a destination. At various steps of the workflow, additional barcodes may be affixed. Various devices, including portable devices, have been developed that enable convenient scanning and printing of such barcodes.
Affixing an incremental identifying object (IIO) to the document is used to add incremental, state-related encoded information to the document within a predetermined area of the document. For example, an IIO may be in the form of a matrix pattern of elements, referred to as a progressive barcode. Each element of the progressive barcode may either be filled in (e.g. a black, gray, or colored ink) or left blank. At each step of the workflow, only a small subset of the elements may be used to encode further information. Thus, information may be added to the IIO using previously unused or incompletely exhausted (e.g. not completely “dark” or black) elements. Thus, the amount of information in the IIO may be progressively increased while the area of the document that is occupied by the IIO remains constant.